From The CFI's Desk

Sunday, 17 August 2014

The Part 61 changes (CASA) are only a couple of weeks away at the time of writing, and it would appear that its full steam ahead and going to be implemented.

From our customers perspective there really isn’t anything to be concerned about, and most won’t even really notice any immediate changes I suggest. I finally got the opportunity to have a comprehensive read through the documentation over the weekend and it does require a lot of work from the Flight Training industry on an extremely tight deadline to ensure we are ready.

Saying that, it’s a great opportunity for us to review every facet of the way we deliver our Flight Training to our customers. Ermin Javier has returned to MFT and will move into the role of Head of Operations (HOO). This role will effectively be the role of the CFI which will become non existent. The new title more accurately reflects the responsibilities of this important role within the organisation, and Ermin will be driving the implementation of these new changes. Our challenge is to come up with improved ways of training and assessing. Initial thoughts suggest we shall be training and assessing against three main areas — planning, technique, and airmanship. By more accurately identifying specific areas for retraining we will be able to ensure we provide more cost effective training.

This overhaul also gives us the opportunity to respond to input from our students. We will be working towards communicating more effectively with our students on how they are progressing, improving standardisation, and doing everything we can to improve your experience. We really will be making a concerted effort going forward to ensure we generate a culture and environment conducive to high level learning with an emphasis on safety. If you have any suggestions please feel free to approach Ermin. Your feedback will be appreciated.

From our students perspective the most significant changes are that:

CPL and ATPL subjects have a two year rolling window,

the previous GFPT is now closely aligned to what will be known as the Recreational Pilot Licence,

three successive fails of a theory subject will require a 3 month wait before resitting,

the role of CFI will be phased out,

the Instructor Rating courses are up for a substantial overhaul,

the Student Pilot Licence requirement will also disappear.

Fundamentally the new legislation changes how we do things, rather than what we do. So relax, there really is nothing to be concerned about, the flying schools will be looking after the change and apart from taking every opportunity to educate yourselves on it, just continue your training as you normally would.